April 21, 1994 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
April 21, 1994 – the civil war that raged in the former Yugoslavia was now making a living hell out of the Muslim enclave of Gorazde, as Bosnian Serbs continued a relentless barrage of shelling and sniper fire. At last report, over 29 people were killed the day before by Serbian attacks. United Nations Peacekeepers were reportedly on their way in an attempt to stop the atrocities going on in Gorazde and a UN relief convoy had left Sarajevo earlier in the morning, with 144 troops attached to stop the fighting in the town, as well as a medical unit dispatched to care for the wounded, whose numbers were mounting by the minute. It was all the Serbs would allow, and it had been delayed a day over arguments over what kind of weaponry the Peacekeepers could take in. Getting from Sarajevo to Gorazde was easier said than done, as it meant going some 35 miles through hostile territory, and then tough negotiations with the Serbs once they had arrived. So desperate was the situation that the UN decided to go in, even though a ceasefire hadn’t been declared. Even if the fighting did stop in Gorazde, and that was a huge “if”, the prospects for those left there were extremely grim. The UN was going in basically to draw a thin-blue-line around what was left of the town’s center.
Meanwhile, the White House diplomatic team was in heavy negotiations with NATO allies over exactly what targets NATO aircraft should be able to hit. Officials hoped for a declaration from the North Atlantic council by week’s end, and were said to be taking a hard line, telling NATO what the U.S. wants to do instead of asking politely what others thought. President Clinton expressed interest in still arriving at a settlement in Bosnia, but that it was time to make the Serbs pay a higher price for their continued violence. Despite all that, there were concerns of an escalating U.S. role in the region and this bothered Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and some members of Congress. Seems not everyone was on the same page.
And former President Nixon’s health wasn’t encouraging, with latest reports saying it had taken a turn for the worse.
And that’s just a little of what went on, this April 21, 1994 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
